William Hay, winner of 3 Kenneth R. Wilson Writing Awards and Folio Award, Canadian Author Association member,author of Caesarean Section and Love Between the Sacred and Profane poetry books, and Psychiatry and Addiction, Personal Perspective book, magazine short story and prose columnist.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Pro Abortion Canadian Style

Mighty Judgement, How the Supreme Court of Canada Runs Your Life, by Phillip Slayton, reviews the 1988 Morgentaller Pro Abortion decision by the Supreme Court that shot down elected Parliaments 'pro life" decision of the day. At the time women were able to have abortions in hospital but the decision was made by committee. In addition women had abortions by seeking D&C procedures or suction D&C procedures for 'abdominal problems'. I did two such therapeutic abortions myself with the attending obgyn knowing full well we were doing abortions.
Back alley abortions occur today. They occur among the mentally ill. They were not 'necessary' in 1980 when I did abortions and they are not 'necessary' now. Indeed today people have access to free birth control of a wide variety of forms, morning after pills and abortion at any stage of pregnancy. As a wry Moslem Iman recently remarked, "Everything goes in Canada, except having babies."
Fetal personhood is denied today by the Supreme Court of Canada which indeed denied women 'personhood' as late as 1928. It's interesting that the female judge on the Supreme Court took the radical feminist position saying that 'no woman should be forced to carry a fetus to term' using classic radical feminist hyperbole suggesting women all over the country were being held down forcibly for 9 months and required to give birth to monsters. No doubt she saw crosses being burned in Prince George as such politically minded women rarely consider reality when they have access to their own seductive ideas.
When I did abortions any woman who was raped could have an abortion, any woman who wanted an abortion and said it would affect her mental health could have an abortion and any woman who wanted could go across the border and an abortion would be done by any of the countless American abortionists that thronged the American Canadian border competing financially for the lucrative Canadian abortion trade.. Morgentaller, a keen and rich business man, can be admired for moving an offshore business home.
The decision in Canada was made by 4 men and 1 woman against 2 judges with the 2 other Catholic Judges whose voices and discussion went unheard in the subsequent debate being absent due to sickness and politics. We can be assured that were the female judge sick, this debate would have been delayed. .Given the claim to freedom of religion in Canada it has been well demonstrated repeatedly that this halcyon cry of the secular religionists has said it's okay to have a religion as long as it's not Catholic.Christians are commonly equally damned by the secular religion of Canada.
Pro Abortion Chief Justice Dickson prevailed.
Supreme Court Judges "William MacIntyre and Gerard La Forest, distressed by what they saw as an unwise attempt by the court to take power that rightly belonged to Parliament, dissented.
William McIntyre said,"The solution to this question in this country must be left to Parliament. It is for Parliament to pronounce on and to direct social policy. This is not because Parliament can claim all wisdom and knowledge but simply because Parliament is elected for this purpose in a free democracy and , in addition, has the facilities - exposure to public opinion and information - as well as the political power to make effective it's decisions".
"As the years went by, Bill Mcintyre's pessimissm about the effect of the Charter on Canada's constitution increased. The court, he thought, used it's power "to substitute its own social policy for that of the legislative branches throughout the country".
Abortion in Canada would kill not just babies but Canada as a free and democratic country. Thanks to the messianic vision of Chief Justice Dickson and the Morgentaller decison Canada would become a 'secular legal theocracy'.
L'chaim! All my relations! .

About Me

I began writing travel stories in grade 3. My mother was a journalist. I started publishing poetry and photography in high school. Dancing and acting followed with study in England with the world champion after bicycling across Europe. Medical school was also a time of canoeing and cross country skiing. Dad was a great outdoorsman. Country general practice was followed by northern fly in medicine. Completing a medicine fellowship and specializing in psychiatry, I did my California medical examinations before returning north to British Columbia where I began big game hunting, chicken farmed and sailed. Eventually, I solo sailed to Hawaii through winter storms. An island psychiatrist in Saipan, the weekly scuba diving was spectacular.Back in Canada, living on the sailboat,my Harley Davidson motorcycle became a whole new source of adventure.
Raised Baptist, I taught sunday school for the United Church and eventually became Anglican a decade back. Bible study, Yogananda, Tai Chi, AA, celtic and native studies all added to that ecumenical Christian spirituality.
Blessed by a loving family, beautiful partners, friends, pets and resilient house plants, life's a miracle.